Toothbrush holder



Jan. 29, 1957 J. SPRINGER TOOTHBRUSH HOLDER Filed Jan. 3, 1955 IN V EN TOR.

J HN SPRINGER BY ATTORNEY United States Patent TOOTHBRUSH HOLDER John Springer, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application January 3, 1955, Serial No. 479,400

2 Claims. (Cl. 248111) The invention relates to a tooth brush holder and has as its general object the provision of a holder which can be fastened to any type of vertical wall, whether the wall be of wood, plaster, metal, glazed tile, glass or otherwise.

Another object of the invention is to provide a tooth brush holder having a tilted floor for inducing the handle of the tooth brush to tilt forwardly and rest against the front wall of the holder making the brush readily accessible for use, the tilting of the floor also serving to provide a water entrapment pocket at the bottom of the holder.

A further object of the invention is to provide a holder with a water entrapment pocket and an opening in the front wall of the holder to provide access to the pocket for cleaning purposes.

A more specific object is to provide a toothbrush holder having spaced side walls inter-connected by a back member, the upper portion of which is substantially flush with the rear edges of the side walls and the lower portion of which is offset to provide a channel area at the back side of the holder, a cross member being interconnected between the side walls at their rear edges and being spaced from the lower portion of the backing member to provide a gap to accommodate insertion of a strip of adhesive tape which is fastened to the inner face of the cross member and thence to the vertical Wall from which the holder is suspended.

A further object is to provide a tooth brush holder with sanitation features and which is very inexpensive and simple to manufacture.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the ensuing specification and appended drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view from the back side of the holder and showing a separable escutcheon member which may be utilized with the holder for suspending it from a vertical wall;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3 and showing the holder suspended from a vertical wall and also schematically showing a tooth brush positioned therein;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary rear view of the holder;

Fig. 4 is a front view of the holder;

Fig. 5 i an underneath view of the holder; and

Fig. 6 is a plan view thereof.

In the preferred form of the invention the holder includes a backing member indicated generally by the numeral 12 which may be initially in the form of an elongated fiat strip turned outwardly at the lower end to provide the floor 11 which is inclined upwardly to define an acute angle with reference to the plane of the backing member for reasons to be explained hereinafter. The backing member is offset at 13 and then continues upwardly with the hanger portion 14 near the upper end of which an aperture 15 may be provided if desired.

The side walls 16 and 17 are secured on opposite sides of the lower portion of the backing member and the longi- 2,779,560 Patented Jan. 29, 1957 'ice tudinal rear edges 18 and 19 of said side walls project beyond the outer surface 20 of the lower portion of the backing member to provide the longitudinal flanges 21 and 22 which define a channel area indicated by the numeral 23 at the back side of the holder. The rear edges 18 and 19 of the side walls are preferably flush with the outer surface 24 of the offset upper portion of the backing member so that the back side of the holder throughout its entire length will lie flat against the flat 0 surface of a vertical wall (indicate-d in Fig. 2 by the numeral 25) when the holder is suspended therefrom. A cross member 26 is secured between the side walls so as to be spaced from the outer surface of the lower portion of the backing member and the outer surface of said cross member is preferably flush with the rear edges of the side walls as is clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 5. The cross member is provided with a downwardly directed V-shaped notch 27 and the holder may, if desired, be suspended from a vertical wall by guiding the notch over a nail head or other abutment projecting outwardly from the surface of the vertical wall. In Fig. 2 I have shown schematically a nail head 28 projecting from the vertical wall 25, the shank of the nail being received within the notch 27.

The upper longitudinal edge 29 of the cross member is positioned sufiiciently below the web portion 30 in sive material, such as Scotch tape, which is coated withadhesive on only one-side can be used. By using such a strip of adhesive tape, the tooth brush holder can be adhered to any type of surface whether the surface be glass, glazed tile, wood, metal or otherwise, and it is not necessary to mar the surface of the wall to which the tooth brush holder is fastened. It will be understood that there is no need for utilizing the nail 28 if the tape is used and vice versa, the schematic showing of the nail in ad dition to use of the tape in Fig. 2 being intended to illustrate the alternate methods of fastening the holder to the vertical wall.

In event it is desired to make a permanent connection to the vertical wall, a hanger block 36 may be permanently secured to the vertical wall as by means of the screws 37 which extend through the opening 38 in the block and are then threaded into the vertical wall. The inside face 39 is mounted against the wall and the offset extension 40 is thus spaced from the surface of the wall and serves as a tongue which projects into the space 32 between the inner face of the cross piece 26 and the outer face of the lower portion of the backing member. The lower edge 41 of the cross piece rests on the ledge 42 of the hanger block. Thus the tooth brush holder may be quickly mounted on or removed from the vertical wall if the permanent type hanger block is utilized. The thickness of the hanger block will be only slightly less than the depth of the channel afforded by the side wall flanges 41 and 42.

The front wall 45 of the holder may, if desired, be integral with the side walls or could be secured as by means of an adhesive to said side walls thereby forming a tubular enclosure 46, generally rectangularly shaped in section, as best viewed in Figs. 5 and 6. The floor 11 is inclined upwardly at a sufficiently sharp angle so as to provide a Water entrapment pocket indicated generally by the numeral 47 and also to assure that when the handle 48 of. the. toothbrush is. insertedinto the holder, the lower end of the handle will, by gravity, slide down the inclined fioor and come to rest at the juncture of the floor and the backing member, thereby causing the bristle end of the. tooth brush totilt forwardly and cometto rest against the upper edge 49 of the front wall of the holder. Thus the bristle end of the tooth brush will always be spaced. away from the inside face 50 ofthe upper portion of the backing member to permit same to be quickly grasped foruse as desired. The lower edge 51 of the front wall terminates-short of the floorli thereby providing an open area indicated generally by the numeral 52 to permit access to the pocket 47 for cleaning same when needed. It will be understood that the juncture of theside edges of the floor withthe inside: faces of the side walls will'be .liquid-tightso that the pocket- 47 is liquid. tight. The upper edges of the side walls and front wallterminate at a height-whichpreferably'permitsthe bristles 53 of the toothbrush to project freely thereabove so that the. bristles are exposed to the air and may dry out quickly after each use of thetooth brush. While the lower portion 20 of the backing member is of. a width which defines the spacing of the side walls from each other. I prefer that the upper portion of the backing member be of a width which includes the distance between the side walls plus the thicknessof each side wall. Thus the shoulders 54 and 55 areformed on the backing member and abut the upper edges of the side walls 16' and 17 respectively. If desired, the aperture 15 in the upper portion of the backing member may be utilized, for vmounting the toothbrush holder relative to the vertical vva1l-a tack, nail or screw extending through said aperture and into the vertical wall.

Thus I have provided a tooth brush holderwhich is made of a minimum of parts and which is inexpensive to manufacture and which affords numerous ways. of being fastened to any type of vertical wall .as well as utilizing sanitation features. The holder could, for example, be made entirely of synthetic resin material in sheetform or in the form :of: moldings, however, it will beunderstood that the holder could be made of other typesof material.

1. A holder for a tooth brush having a bristled head and an elongated handle, comprising: a casing including spaced parallel side walls and spaced parallel front and rear walls interconnecting said side Walls; a floor interconnecting the lower ends of the rear and side walls and inclined upwardly and forwardly from the rear wall to provide a pocket to receive the said tooth brush handle and to collect moisture, said pocket having its lowermost extremity adjacent the rear wall so as to cause the end of the handle to assume a position against the rear wall while the shaft thereof rests against'the upper edge of the forward wall and the head projects forwardly from the holder; said forward wall having its lower edge spaced entirely above said floor to provide a ventilation and cleaning opening; said side walls projecting rearwardly from said rear wall; and a cross member joining the rear edges of said side walls at the upper end of the holder and spaced rearwardly from the rear wall to provide a space to receive a strip of adhesive tape for attachment to the forward face of said cross member, a mouth being provided at the upper extremity of said space through which said adhesive tape may extend upwardly andbe attached to the supporting wall, the rear face of said cross member and the rear edges of said side wall members lying ina common plane for contact with said supporting wall.

2. A holder as defined in claiml, including a backing member projecting upwardly from the upper rear corner of said holder, and, an offset integrally joining said back.- ing member to said rear wall member and covering said mouth at the top, the upper extremity of said cross member being spaced below said offset member to provide said mouth.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 606,208 Gutmann -June 28, 1898 1,709,144 Mueller Apr. 16, 1929 2,662,719 Hammond Dec. 15, 1953 

